1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ready-to-eat food products. More particularly, the invention relates to a self-contained, individual serving size cereal product.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Food products that require little or no preparation have been available to the consumer for many years. These food products include breakfast cereals that are pre-sweetened and/or pre-flavored, whereby it is necessary only to add milk or hot water, depending upon the type of cereal and the desired flavor, to prepare the cereal for normal consumption. Some breakfast cereals are intended to be eaten hot, and these must either be cooked or have hot water or hot milk added to them.
Many consumers eat breakfast cereals as a snack food, with or without the addition of milk. As reported in a recent issue of Business Week magazine, there is a growing trend to consume cereal at noon and at night, as well as more traditionally as a breakfast food. Many breakfast cereals may be eaten directly from the box, without any preparation time, except for the addition of milk or hot water, if desired, thus making it an exceptionally convenient food. Further, the average consumer is more health conscious than in the past, and breakfast cereals make a more healthy ready-to-eat snack than many other ready-to-eat snack foods. Pre-sweetened and pre-flavored breakfast cereals also make them more convenient for consumption straight out of the box, since it is not necessary to add sweeteners or flavorings to the cereal before eating it.
The convenience and nutritional value of cereal make it especially desirable as a food product. This is particularly true in countries where conditions limit the availability of many healthful foods, due at least in part to the lack of refrigeration. Ready-to-eat cereals can be stored without refrigeration, and especially if fortified with vitamins and minerals, could provide essential nutrition to large segments of the population in these countries. For instance, milk and other dairy products are an important source of calcium, but the absence of refrigeration makes it very difficult to provide milk as a part of the regular diet in these countries.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,494,769 describes a breakfast cereal suitable for use as cold cereal by the addition of milk, or as a hot cereal by the addition of hot water. The cereal is prepared by heating rolled oats to cook the starch and protein contained therein, applying liquid milk in sufficient quantity only to wet the oats and to distribute it evenly throughout the oat product, and then drying the wet product to crispness, producing a crunchy product. During the manufacturing process, the flaky or granular cereal is either sprayed or sprinkled with liquid milk in which sugar, salt, fruit juice puree, and/or flavoring materials are dissolved, whereby the mixture is absorbed by the oat flakes and evenly distributed throughout the body of the flakes. Cream, butterfat, or cream substitute may be added to the milk to improve the flavor and the texture of the product. The cream or dry cream substitute may be mixed with the milk or it may be added to the cereal in a conventional mixer after the milk containing the other additives has been added. If a dry cream substitute is used, it may be dusted onto the cereal while the mixer is operating. The amount of milk added to the cereal is determined by the desired crunchiness of the resulting product, i.e., if a relatively small amount of milk is used and little fruit is added, the product will be relatively soft and water absorptive and not crunchy, or if a higher proportion of milk with fruit is used to wet the cereal, which is thereafter dried, it is crunchy. There is no suggestion of the self-contained, individual serving size cereal package of the invention, and particularly with a dry milk product and other additives placed individually in the package.
An example of a pre-sweetened breakfast cereal is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,984. This patent purports to overcome the difficulty in the prior art of sweetening cereals with fructose sweeteners. The use of fructose sweeteners, which are normally in a liquid state, was not practical before the invention described in this patent, since such coating resulted in a sticky, messy product. The teaching in this patent overcomes this difficultly and enables liquid fructose sweeteners to be used on cereal products, by covering or coating the sticky fructose coating with an edible powdered material to eliminate the stickiness. Examples of the powdered material are given as sucrose, lactose, dried corn syrup solids, corn starch, wheat starch, dried milk solids and/or dextrose. In the process described in this patent, the liquid sweetener is treated to evaporate a majority of the moisture from the liquid sweetener and then it is applied to the cereal pieces by using an enrober drum while the liquid sweetener is still at an elevated temperature and thus fluid. A limited amount of the powdered material is dusted onto the coated cereal pieces as cooling takes place. The liquid sweetener captures the powdered material, and the powdered material substantially eliminates the cohesiveness and stickiness of the coated pieces. There is no suggestion in this patent of the self-contained, individual serving size cereal package of the invention, and particularly with a dry milk product and other additives placed individually in the package.
A process for manufacturing a reconstitutable cereal is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,624, in which water is added to pre-steamed flaked oatlets which are then blended together and fed to an extruder cooker to raise the temperature and pressure of the product. The exudate is cut into pellets which are formed into flakes on flaking rolls and dried to a moisture content of 7%. The flakes are blended with 25% by weight of the pre-steamed oatlets to form an instant water-reconstitutable cereal product. The product is therefore ready for eating without the need to be cooked, and may be prepared simply by the addition of hot water or milk. Additives such as trace nutrients, vitamins, wheat flour, bran, skimmed milk powder, whey powder, or other milk by-products, malt extract, honey, sweetening agents such as sugar or aspartame, sunflower seed, vegetable oil, salt or other flavoring agents may be added to the conditioned flakes. The prepared oatlets are described as having all the normal organoleptic properties of oats which are cooked in the traditional manner, and the major advantage is described as a cereal product which may be instantly reconstituted simply by the addition of hot water or milk. There is no suggestion in this patent of the self-contained, individual serving size cereal package of the invention, and particularly with a dry milk product and other additives placed individually in the package.
A creamy orange flavored snack cereal is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,914. The food product described in this patent includes a popped cereal that includes a powdered dairy or dairy substitute product which simulates cream flavor, in combination with powdered orange or artificial orange flavor. The purpose of this patent is to provide a product which may be eaten as a snack without milk or liquid and yet has a "creamsicle" flavor. The patent describes two essential ingredients as being required in order to produce the invention. These are the constituent which creates the simulated cream flavor, and the constituent which creates the orange flavor. The cream flavor or creamy ice cream flavor is obtained by using powdered non-dairy cream substitutes such as, for example, coffee creamer or cream flavoring. The patent states that the food product may be eaten with milk, or used as a dry snack eaten like potato chips or other dry snacks. There is no suggestion in this patent of the self-contained, individual serving size cereal package of the invention, and particularly with a dry milk product and other additives placed individually in the package.
Other ready-to-eat or easily prepared food products are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,578,459, 3,992,556, 4,485,120, 4,585,664 and 4,755,390. These patents all relate to the use of various additives and/or manufacturing processes which enhance the nutritional value and/or quality, e.g., texture, flavor, etc., of the resultant product. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,664 describes a dry instant rice porridge mix that is reconstitutable in milk, or which may be reconstitutable in water with the addition of dry milk solids. The non-fat dry milk solids are added to provide an amount of milk solids equivalent to the milk solids obtained in a conventional long-cook product, i.e., to provide an excess of milk solids in the rehydrated final ready-to-eat product. The conventional long-cook process evaporates water from the milk in which the rice is cooking and this results in an excess of milk solids, as compared to uncooked milk. Synthetic milk-like substances such as sodium caseinate and/or non-milk lipid sources may be used instead of non-fat dry milk solids. There is no suggestion in these patents of the self-contained, individual serving size cereal package of the invention, and particularly with a dry milk product and other additives placed individually in the package.
In conventional dry cereal products, nutrients are added to the cereal during the manufacturing process. Many of these nutrients deteriorate in the presence of heat and/or upon the passage of relatively short periods of time. Accordingly, some of the nutritional benefit of these additives is lost during manufacture and/or storage of the cereal. If a certain level of nutritional benefit is desired in the final product, then an excess amount of the nutrient must be added during the manufacturing process. This increases the cost of manufacturing the fortified cereal product, and leads to waste of the nutritional materials.
Some cereal products are packaged in convenient single serving sizes. These packages generally require the addition of milk if the flavor and consistency of a milk and cereal mixture is desired. Kellogg's "Breakfast Mates".TM. cereal is an example of a cereal product marketed in a single serving size. This package comprises a box in which are packaged a container of dry cereal, a container of specially processed liquid milk, which does not require refrigeration prior to being opened, and a spoon. This package is quite convenient, in that it is self-contained. However, it requires the admixture by the consumer of separate components, and is relatively expensive to make.
Other single serving size cereal packages contain only the dry cereal product, which must be poured into a bowl and milk added if the flavor and consistency of a milk and cereal mixture is desired.
Many people eat cereals straight from the package, without the addition of milk. The practice of eating cereal products dry, as a snack food, without the addition of milk, results in loss of the nutritional benefits of milk. The flavor of a milk and cereal mixture is also lost.
Applicant is not aware of any prior art teaching of a self-contained, single serving size, ready-to-eat cereal package to which a quantity of dry milk product, such as powdered whole milk or a low-fat or non-fat dry milk product or dry powdered milk substitute, or any combination thereof, has been added, whereby it is necessary only to add water to reconstitute the milk, thereby producing a ready-to-eat cereal and milk combination that, in terms of taste, texture and appearance, is comparable to a conventional dry cereal product to which liquid milk has been added to prepare it to be eaten, or alternatively, which may be eaten straight from the box, without the addition of water, and which will have a flavor and nutritional value very much like that of cereal to which milk has been added. The prior art does not disclose anything comparable.
Thus, there is need for a single serving size cereal product that has a powdered whole milk or low fat milk or milk substitute added that may be reconstituted by the addition of water, or eaten straight from the box, so that the nutritional benefit and flavor of a cereal and milk combination may be produced without the necessity of adding liquid milk to the cereal to prepare it to be eaten.